Salmon and potato fishcakes with lemon butter
Freeze the extra two uncooked, ready for a day when the stove feels like too much
Makes four cakes, two each. Halve everything for a single portion, or keep the batch and freeze half.
A good fishcake is mostly about the mash, which wants to be pushed through a sieve rather than merely mashed, so what holds the salmon together is smooth the whole way through. The salmon poaches in a second small pan while the potatoes soften, then goes in while it is still warm, flaked large, so the pieces stay visible instead of turning to paste. Shape the mixture into four cakes rather than two big ones and they hold together far better in the pan. Make the full batch even if only one of you is eating tonight. Crumb the spare two and freeze them raw, then move them to the fridge the night before, so they fry through to the middle rather than staying cold in the centre.
Ingredients
Contains: Fish, Egg, Gluten, Milk
- 400 gpotato, peeled and cut into even chunks
- 300 gsalmon fillet, skinless and boneless
- 2eggs, lightly beaten, 1 for the mixture and 1 for coating
- salt
- 30 gplain white flour
- 100 gwhite breadcrumbs
- 3 tbspvegetable oil, for frying
- 40 gunsalted butter
- 1 tbsplemon juice
Method
Cover the potato chunks with cold water, bring to the boil and simmer for 15 to 18 minutes, until a knife goes through with no resistance. Drain well and leave them in the colander to steam dry for a minute.
While the potato cooks, put the salmon in a small pan, cover with water and bring to a bare simmer. Poach for 8 to 10 minutes, until it flakes easily, then lift out and flake into large pieces, checking carefully for any stray bones.
Mash the potato, then push it through a sieve into a large bowl, which is what gives the mixture its silky texture. Fold in the flaked salmon, one of the beaten eggs and a good pinch of salt until evenly combined.
Divide the mixture into four and shape into thick, even cakes with damp hands. Chill for 15 minutes if you have the time, which helps them hold together in the pan.
Set the flour on one plate, the second beaten egg in a shallow bowl and the breadcrumbs on a second plate. Turn each cake through the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs, pressing gently so the crumb sticks all over.
Heat the oil in a wide frying pan over a medium heat. Fry the cakes for 4 to 5 minutes on each side, without crowding them, until the crust is deep golden and the centre is piping hot.
Melt the butter in a small pan, stir in the lemon juice and spoon it over the fishcakes to serve.
Freeze any cakes you are not eating tonight, crumbed but uncooked, on a tray until firm and then in a bag, for up to two months. Move them to the fridge the night before and fry them from chilled, so the middle is hot by the time the crust is golden.
Frying them straight from the freezer browns the crumb long before the centre has warmed through, which is the one way this recipe can go wrong.
Watch-points
- Push the mash through a sieve rather than leaving it hand-mashed, so nothing lumpy is left in the middle of a fishcake.
- Use white breadcrumbs for the coating, not a wholegrain or seeded crumb.
- Check the salmon carefully for bones once it is poached and before it goes into the mixture.
- Use lemon juice only in the butter, no zest or pith.
Stoma note: Potato and white crumb both tend to thicken output. Two cakes is a generous portion, so start with one if things are unsettled.
Make it more nourishing
- Stir 30 g of grated Cheddar into the potato mixture before shaping.
- Use 60 g of butter in the lemon butter instead of 40.
- Poach the salmon in 300 ml of whole milk instead of water, and beat 2 tablespoons of that milk into the mash. More protein, and a softer mixture.
Swaps
- Instead of salmon fillet, use tinned salmon, skin and bones removed
- no poaching needed, and the texture is very similar once flaked
- Instead of frying in oil, use baking at 200°C fan (220°C) for 20 minutes, turning once
- less to watch at the hob, though the crust is a little less crisp